AMSTERDAM – Stabæk midfielder Cole Grossman made his first Tippeligaen goal a memorable one, curling home the 1-0 winner with three minutes left on the clock to to give Bob Bradley's side its first victory of the young season.
The former Real Salt Lake man went into the book for his first Norwegian yellow card in the 69th minute, before stamping the score sheet with authority in the waning moments. Grossman stepped onto the carom of a Luc Kassi shot at the top of the box and coolly rifled the decider around a small crowd to earn Man of the Match honors.
With the goal, Grossman became the fifth American to score for the club, following Ricardo Clark, Mix Diskerud, Andrew Jacobsen and Michael Stephens. What's more, Stabæk have gotten at least one goal from an American player in five of the last six campaigns.
Now back to break-even through three rounds, the Blue Ones rose to ninth place.
Elsewhere, Ethan Horvath served as back-up netminder for champs Molde FK in a 5-1 home thrashing of Aalesund FK that lifted them to fourth place.
Over in Armenia's Premier League, a quirky strike for goal chart leader César Romero was not enough as FC Pyunik's table-top cushion was reduced to four points by a 2-1 loss at Ulisses. The former Chivas USA forward notched his 19th goal of the season this term to temporarily level matters in the 30th minute. Romero's long curling free kick from nearly 40 yards out on the left flank bounced through untouched to find the far side of the net.
The tally gave Romero 23 goals across all competitions, putting him level with Clint Dempsey for the third-highest overall haul ever by an American playing in a European top flight over a single campaign. However, Pyunik have now dropped two straight league matches for the first on the term.
